THB #272: 15 Weeks To Oscar

Exhibition has 99 problems, but Oscar movies ain’t one of them.

I am going to start the column today with a discussion about the delusional perception of the box office and Oscar here in early December. I had a chat with a knowledgeable friend yesterday, who insisted that this was a disastrous year for Oscar because the movies are not doing business. We had both read a number of stories about this in the last couple weeks. But none of those stories, as is the norm for much of media in 2022, bothered to do any research. So, here is a little research.

My Top 10 Best Picture contender list, as of last week. Others see it differently (fair enough), but not dramatically so. The number to the right is the current box office status of these films.

As you can see, 3 of the movies are not yet open, another isn’t reporting box office, 3 have grossed over $70 million, and 3 of the films have had modest/underwhelming pre-nomination box office.